it was so highly classified that the doj noted that even the fbi counterintelligence personnel and dojorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents. the doj also says trump's request for a special master is unnecessary and would significantly harm governmental interest, including national security interests. simply put, the former president lacks standing to seek judicial relief or oversight as presidential records because those records do not belong to him. they belong to the government. we're still awaiting trump's legal team to respond to the doj filing, and they have until the end of this hour. joining me now is former cia director john brenn, melissa murray, law professor at nyu and former law clerk to judge sonia sotomayor and joyce vance, former u.s. attorney and law professor at the university of alabama. all three are msnbc analysts. i'll start with you, melissa. this was a fascinating read. my morning reading was this, and even as non-lawyer i found it very interesting. they seem to make -- in my view, four

here the doj wants to make its case. >> this is a statement moment for doj.ld trump's accusations in a robust way. i think we are going to get some detail about what was in the documents themselves. we know very little about the documents that were actually seized during the search warrant. we've seen the receipt for property. but it's very general. it is box of documents, really the most important thing we learned is that several of those documents were classified at the highest level, top secret s c i. i think we will get a glimpse into what specifically is in those documents. i think it will be interesting to see what doj's position is here. i think they are going to oppose a special master, but are they going to propose a fallback position, which is judge, if you do appoint a special master, we like to do it in a way that does not derail this thing, the does not take us out of this thing for months at a time. >> i'm not gonna try to summarize it, but i will tell, you donald j trump, plaintive versus united states of america defendant, united states respon

long doj and fbi? you know they couldn't solve, that by not taking the documents in the first place, or by turning them over last year. look, delay is certainly part of the strategy here, maybe the predominant strategy here, i think, by the trump team. generally speaking, prosecutors hate delay. i was always trying to get to the jury as soon as possible, trying to get an indictment, trying to get to a jury's soon as possible. and generally speaking, it's better for people who are being investigated maybe become defended someday, to try and delay, drag it out, see how things happen. and particularly acute here, we have the political dynamics overlaying this potential announcement of a candidacy. >> and what about this whole claim of executive privilege? it's how you think doj will respond to? but i >> think the audit will give the back of the hand. i think it will argue tonight that there is no merit to it, and we do not need a special master. i think trump disagrees though. >> sarah, trump's legal team

basically it seems doj has hit their deadline. there is an order to unseal the documents but we are just waiting for this all to get refreshed on the federal court system. >> so, kelly o'donnell, the release is coming a little more than two months ahead of midterm elections. president biden is really sharpening his rhetoric against former president trump and republicans. this is potentially reframing the debate although abortion and other issues, certainly inflation and the economy, have been the top issues, not this whole controversy over the mar-a-lago search. >> andrea, just a short time ago at an unrelated event at the white house the president was asked by a member of the press pool today if he believes national security has been compromised by what was found at mar-a-lago. we know there were 11 sets of classified information that were taken during the seizure and the execution of the search warrant. prior to that there were other things returned in the back and forth between officials from the federal government and the nati

this is from the doj. they talk about what could happen if surveillance video of the fbi search of mar-a-lago gets released. the doj officials say that the department would hope that caution and carry would be used by anyone with access to that footage. last hour, former trump lawyer michael cohen gave his thoughts on how trump could approach this situation. >> if they believe that the tape that benefited them, i promise you that tape would have already been released as we are speaking right now. obviously, they know that it does not. there are thousands and thousands of cameras thrilled mar-a-lago. i can assure you that at the time the rate was taking place, they were watching the raid. they were watching the fbi agents going through the property. >> that comes as trump is now planning a new legal challenge. the attorney says the team is preparing to file a motion. they claim that the amendment right for violent when they raided his resort. donald trump thinks this will help him in 2024. some of his allie

and the doj made its move and said no. they knew or had strong evidence to prove that there were other classified and potentially criminal materials on site and they made the move demanding them under subpoena and trump apparently thought he could just get away with whatever he had left without being searched or raided. he is the former president and he's pushed lines before, and as merrick garland just explained today, it is true that they exhausted other less intrusive means first. so that was a move. but trump miscalculated. and faced this assertive operation. and then he decided to publicize that. and i'll tell you, that was another move. whether trump made it out of emotion or strategy, that move paved the way for the doj's very significant legal move today that is the top story tonight, which is merrick garland basically saying we did this quietly, you made it loud. and now you're complaining that the loud process is somehow mysteriously without evidence unfair. so fine, says garland. let's put the facts about the se

in this case, doj had already won. they had the filter team and let's face it the filter team is also the doj. they had time to review everything. why ask for additional pages why even oppose the appointment of a special master how could it hurt doj at this point? well, i understand. two major reasons, number one, doj wanted to put out its definitive piece on the bad behavior of the trump team returning the documents. part two, doj wanted to make it clear, we weren't kidding these documents are really, really top secret. see exhibit "a," the picture you're looking at where they're almost comically marked "top secret" on the cover. you can't make a mistake about the documents. that is the reason to put out the argument against a special master that, look, these documents are so secret we couldn't even review them without getting clearance. so the special master could compromise things even more and delay the investigation. owe doj putting out a strong argument. one thing i want to asked, watch the pace where doj argues

but the judge is forcing doj's hand.y next thursday, they're going to have to submit a filing, telling the judge in more detail what can and can't be released. they've already said, nothing, so they might have to appease the judge and say something that can be released. and then on top of that, the judge is saying, okay, after you give me that submission, we can then meet confidentiality to further discuss this and to decide what, if anything, here can be publicly released, but the judge is really erring on the side of getting something out there to the public, alisyn. >> so, what public good would that do if it was that redacted? >> that is a question i echo. i think jessica is right. i think the judge wants to say, we gave you more, public, than what is normally released. these affidavits are normally locked away unless somebody gets charged. until then, it's really unheard of for any part of this. so, i think jessica is right. i think the judge is trying to push doj a little bit towards the middle, saying, give me som

are others wrong, our genuine distrust of the fbi and the doj? treatment of peter navarro recently. the treatment of paul manafort, roger stone who we are going to work two. am i wrong if you are a conservator you'll be treated one way, if you're hillary clinton, biden, you could treat in another way? >> that's precisely why the raid seems rather reckless. the attorney general has to weigh that context. this country is a tinderbox. he has an agency in the fbi that has a documented history of false statements, a documented history of misleading courts. you have to consider that before you approve a raid of this kind. one of the things that struck me with their initial comments on the sources is how they describe this. they told you that there were two things described in the warrant, one a general category of material that should have been turned over to the archives under the presidential records act and the second was a general reference to possibly classified information. if the descriptions accurate, it's very concerning. a first of all, the f

in the justice department's investigation into the former president, including this picture from the dojowing some of the documents seized. we'll walk you through everything that's happened overnight. >>> also ahead, qanon and dangerous conspiracy theories. that's how donald trump spent his time yesterday on his fledgling social media platform. we'll explain how it is part of a growing trend for the former president. ♪♪ >>> good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, august 31st. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. we'll begin with that breaking news overnight. a flurry of damning new revelations from the justice department's investigation into former president donald trump. several major headlines are emerging from the doj's med night filing in response to trump's request for a special master or independent reviewer of the materials following the search of mar-a-lago on august 8th. the doj arguing appointing a special master is unnecessary and would significantly harm important governmental interests, including national security interests. the doj points ou

the trump legal team has until tonight to respond to this latest doj filing.t a hearing on thursday a judge will hear arguments before making her final decision on a need for that special master. >> with me now cnn's senior legal analyst ellie honing and cnn reporter kara scannell. we were all um all night. these documents needed to be submitted just before midnight and they were. kara, give us the low down. >> right. john, what we're really seeing in this document is doj presenting a counternarrative to the narrative that trump has put out there. they said what he has said was inaccurate and misleading and they go meticulously through some of those details that since they executed that search warrant they recovered twice adds many documents as they had received when trump and his legal team had responded to a subpoena. they also said that it's likely that a number of these documents were concealed and removed from the storage room that the fbi initially was allowed to enter. they say the fbi agents who were there were not allowed to open any boxes in the stor

i mean, bombshell filing by the doj. you've worked with the doj. you've been affiliated.'ve had exposure to them. clearly, matt, this photo as an exhibit to this court filing, it's so breathtaking in what it depicts, right? >> yeah, absolutely. i think the justice department had two goals. first and foremost, i think their primary audience which were trying to convince is the judge. remember, she is new to this case. she wasn't involved in the search warrant, wasn't involved in approving that affidavit to allow the search warrant to go forward. and she is a former assistant u.s. attorney who would be familiar with classified information from her time at the justice department, would be flash with how classified information is supposed to be handled. and i think they're sending a message to her about exactly what was happening at mar-a-lago, number one. and number two, that trump lied. because if you look at the where this information was found, these documents that are contained in the photo, these are documents that were contained not in the supposed secure storage room,

that did not leak out of doj. despite the fantastic reporters including our own former pete williams, that went to no one. that was kept very secret. the fact that the doj is really trying to follow the rules here and i think that is what we need to emphasize, despite some of the hot takes that we're seeing popping up out on twitter. >> retired pete williams. let's underscore that. he's still very much alive, ryan. >> oh, my gosh. i'm -- former pete williams. pete is the best. >> we're missing him very much the past couple of weeks. >> and i want to say get off of twitter because it is not a place to get accurate information a lot of time. it just drives you crazy. and barbara mcquade, you're with us as well. it is good to have you. i want to ask, lindsey graham wants to see the affidavit and the trump team wants to see the affidavit, what is the likelihood we're get any of that unsealed? >> i think zero. the affidavit is the details of the investigation and there is no point to reveal it and it could be damaging

i think that could well have been doj's reasoning. to the point caitlyn was just making, prosecutors and merrick garland in this situation are in a really difficult scenario when it comes to this type of situation because your hands are largely tied as to what you can say to the press. your instinct as a lawyer, a prosecutor, is i want to get behind that microphone, i want to set everything straight, i want to main is all we did. you cannot do that for policy reasons. i think what we're going to hear is a reaffirmation of vote of confidence in the men and women of doj and the fbi, as andy mccabe said. and i think we will hear sort of assertions that everything was necessary, proper, by the book. will that answer all the critics? maybe, maybe not. i think one of the main audiences is the people who work inside doj and the fbi, as well. >> yeah. i think one thing we can know for certain is that what the attorney general says today will not satisfy all the critics because for many of them it's not in their interests to be satisfied by wh

doj lays out the reasons for that. you don't want to give the folks that are under investigation a roadmap to where the investigation is headed. because that would permit them to interfere with it. it could mean that witnesses would become intimidated and might not become available. and since the government's whole goal in these investigations is to get to the truth, it is essential that they have access to those witnesses. that, i think, is one of the primary reasons. but also, this sort of an affidavit contains material obtained through the grand jury. that has to be kept secret. that is a legal requirement. there is likely a lot of classified material in this search warrant that needs to be protected. and even the rights of people who are under investigation but have not been charged, their rights are best protected when something like this affidavit remains sealed. so, i think it is awfully unlikely that we will see the entire affidavit unsealed tomorrow. >> we've got another one, andrew. abc reporting that weeks b

doj, we know about the documents investigation. we also know they're starting to look around the white house in relation to january 6th. we have had reporting the last couple weeks, talking to inner circle white people, pat cipollone and others. the new york state attorney general, letitia james, she has an investigation that appears to be a civil investigation of potential fraud relating to donald trump's businesses, of course, the january 6th committee, that's not a criminal or civil investigation. but that is an ongoing congressional investigation. there are civil suits as well. donald trump has been sued by e. jean carroll and others for defamation. he's got a world of legal problems stacking up here. >> are you expecting any public-facing actions from the doj between now and the midterms? >> certainly not relating to this search warrant. so, first of all, people are calling on doj, you have to explain yourself. they won't do that. they shouldn't do that. it would interfere with an ongoing investigation. also, doj has a longsta

jennifer, about this doj -- about the, yeah, the affidavit that everybody wants to see, except doj can you not it released, when do you think that the public could ever get their eyes on portions of this? >> well, alisyn, i think it's going to be a little while, because, of course, it will take some time if the judge does insist on releasing it with redactions, it will take some time for the judge and doj to go back and forth and reach some agreement on what the judge thinks is reasonable. but then, you also have to remember, this is with a magistrate judge, not an article iii district court judge, so typically, how it works, the magistrate will make a report and recommendation to a district court judge who is the one who has the power to issue an order for the release of a document like this. so, there may be some time built in for that process, and then that doesn't even get into the possible appeal if doj is unhappy with where the judges land. so, i think it's going to be at least into next week before we're able to see anything. >> peter, there are the legal concerns and the politi

and doj deserves credit here.al you have as a prosecutor, as a law enforcement agent, is to protect your witnesses. protect them from retaliation, protect them from harm. they held the line here. they told the judge we will unseal as much as possible but they drew a line they would not cross when it comes to anything to compromise a witness. >> steve, are you satisfied with the doj's response in trying to protect the witnesses and the fbi officials as well? >> yeah, i think they have done as much as they legally could. if i were the agent trying to protect sources, i would be very happy with this outcome. i think just tailing on what was just said is one of the things that's interesting to me is almost the last part of this document. it talks about the destruction or concealment of information, of classified information. there's your obstruction right there. it could come down to the fact that the possession might not be the big deal. the big deal might be actually the obstruction. >> harry, so what happens next?

after sending it back to the doj, i think that that was an appropriate order. you know, many of us expected that he would just defer to the department of justice and a lot of judges do that even though the department of justice has a long record of using these arguments to prevent disclosures even to criminal defendants. the problem is that the department of justice is rather notorious for using redaction's, and they set up a reverse incentive. if they over redact, it's more likely the judge will disagree which means they can go on appeal and delay any release further. so they have a rather odd incentive that the more they redact, the more likely they can get more time. but we will have to see if this judge is willing to go mano a mano with the department of justice. and say, this is obsessive. i've said all along that i believe portions of the affidavit could be released without undermining the investigation, not because i have seen the affidavit, but i have seen lots of other affidavits, much of an affidavit involves material that will not necessarily comprom

doj even releasing a picture of some of them. as you can see, they're clearly marked secret, top secret, and sci -- sensitive compartmented information, only for the eyes of those with the highest security clearance. the doj noting that in a matter of hours, they "recovered more than twice the amount" they received in june, when trump's lawyers told them everything had been turned over after their, quote, "diligent search." according to doj, trump's attorneys insisted all the documents were stored in one location, a storage room. but investigators determined government records were likely concealed and removed from the storage room, revealing they even discovered three classified documents in the desk of trump's own office. when he ran against hillary clinton, trump insisted he would handle the nation's secrets with the utmost care. >> in my administration, i'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. no one will be above the law. >> reporter: now he faces the potential of criminal charges. a

on the heels of that, was there any overreach by the doj in the reasonings for the redactions? >> no. this is pretty clean. if anything, doj has gone much further in releasing this material that i have ever seen them do. i had a defense lawyer text me yesterday and she said, every time i have asked to see the search warrant affidavit for one of my clients, doj has left me out of the room. she said, i'm glad i will go to my grave having read at least one affidavit even though it is something else is. and i think that is pretty accurate. these affidavits are never released. this is such an exceptional case that doj i think did a very respectful job of reviewing the law and balancing the interest. because the law is very clear that the public has an interest in knowing this information. it is tough to imagine a case where the public would have a greater interest, that the doj would need to respect. >> last question to the document that claimed there's probable cause to find that evidence of obstruction could be found in mar-a-lago. without pertaining to this affidavit, just the ty

the doj was requesting. but we now know that was not accurate, and the department of justice publicing this picture to prove it. what you are looking at there is a number of files labeled "top secret" with bright red or yellow cover sheets spread out over trump's carpet. those files were found inside of trump's office. we'll have much more on all of this coming up. but let's begin with evan perez who is in washington. so this thing is due, evan, in 58 minutes. so we could likely get it in a minute. what are we expecting? >> reporter: we're expecting the former president's legal team to look past what the justice department alleged in their 36-page filing last night. this is kind of what they've been doing all along, poppy. they essentially just talk past what the justice department is saying, and we expect, according to pamela brown, who talked to people in that world, they are going to focus on the presidential record act. they say the law doesn't really apply. it has no teeth essentially, because donald tr

this was a letter sent to the doj in june.ing is that when you are looking at an obstruction charge? >> well, rule number one for aspiring layers. if mr. corcoran writes the draft, maybe mr. corcoran should be the one who signs it, and another lawyer, christina bobb. if those lawyers believe that that was true, because donald trump or someone else told them it was true, then perhaps they don't have any liability. if they knew that they were continuing to retain documents and representing in writing that all documents have been returned, they have a very serious problem of obstruction of justice, as we just discussed. that is a 20-year felony. now, it could be that they were unwitting agent, but someone told them during that representation. if that someone is donald trump, that he is also liable, or could be liable for using those unwitting agents to make his own statement. if he knew that that statement is going to be passed on to the justice department, and he could be guilty of that offense. >> the last thing i want to bring

they were seized as well according to doj filings. now, the classification levels ranged from confidential to top secret. some were so sensitive that according to the doj in some instances even the fbi counterintelligence personnel and the doj attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents, and the justice department, they say that the search casts serious doubt on the claim in the certification and now in the motion that there had been a diligent search for records responsive to the grand jury subpoena, in the storage room alone, the fbi agents found 76 documents bearing classification markings. let's turn now to cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez. michael moore is a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at the moore hall law firm. and joshua school is -- he served as the fbi executive assistant director for intention. he's now a president of bow wave llc. first, trump's lawyers have about five more hours to respond to the justice department's lat

the doj does not want this out. what kinds of things might be in the probable cause affidavit they don't want released or could redact and release. >> first and foremost, protecting the live sources, people who have provided information that went into the affidavit, and that is -- you cannot get this kind of search warrant without live people, live sources giving them information. it didn't we done with data checks and you know, things that are, you know, just what i call desk investigations. you've got to get a live source in there. so they don't want to see those sources compromised. that's one thing. there probably is some national security related information in there, but if you look at the statutes that are involved with this search warrant, they do not cite classified information. they are talking about information relating to national defense. so i would submit to you that you could have classified information that he could unclassify but would still relate to the national defense. so i'm not -- i think that

what doj wanted. obviously that wasn't the takeaway that the justice department had after that conversation and to get a search warrant like this, the fbi has to persuade a judge that there's evidence at a particular location, at a particular moment in time that would be directly related to a crime being committed. so that means their concerns about potential criminal activity of which there could be evidence at mar-a-lago persisted for months after that meeting despite the fact that people in trump's orbit have signaled that the tenor of that meeting was not particularly hostile or acrimonious. trump himself in his statement said that he thought this raid, quote, unquote raid was totally unnecessary and uncalled for. the trump people have been signaling that they think in their view or they argue in their view that they've been cooperating, but that is extremely far afield from the views at fbi and doj. >> andrew weissman, i ask you this question, you know, the definition of cooperation would presuma

we haven't heard from the doj. >> right, we haven't heard from the doj. we have heard from a lot of republicans who don't know anything what they're talking about. they're spouting out, following donald trump attacking the doj, without any idea what the basis for this search warrant is. and it just goes to show you how much control donald trump still has over kevin mccarthy and the republican party. and the fact that kevin mccarthy would issue that statement, in such an antagonistic and inflammatory way against merrick garland, i wonder if hunter biden is charged are we going to see him with that same kind of preserve your records? of course not. he's consistently undermined the rule of law. and merrick garland. >> let me ask you, merrick garland must have known this type of thing was coming, lisa monaco must have known this type of response was coming, christopher ray must have known. how much does that raise the stakes for the decision? what bar do you think they melt w felt was met? >> i think they have to know it was meant for their investigation. the

the executive branch, by way of the doj, the fbi, and the judicial branch. but the judge needed to approve the warrant. with the case this unprecedented, it likely involve top level officials at the doj. including, potentially, the attorney general himself. we bob, the trump lawyer who spoke to the washington post, confirmed that they seized documents from mar-a-lago. even though she now tries to argue that fbi is simply lying about the alleged crime, and potentially fabricating evidence. >> i don't think that there was actually anything there that is worth while, we'll see what they come up with, if they did it will be interesting, especially since they precluded me from actually watching what they did. but at this point, i don't necessarily think that they would even go to the extent of trying to plant information, i think that just makes stuff up and come up with whatever they want. that is the way that they will have to proceed in order to actually indict the president, because they don't have anything, there's just nothing there. >> neither trump nor hi

the doj has also called several high-ranking trump officials to testify. last week, pat cipollone and his deputy pat philbin were both scheduled to appear before a grand jury. also pence's legal counsel, greg jacob and his chief of staff marc short testified before the grand jury. and the former aide to chief of staff mark meadows, cassidy hutchinson who's cooperating with the doj. in fulton county georgia, rudy giuliani, trump's county lawyer is ordered to appear before a grand jury next week. now he's trying to delay his testimony for health reasons. we already knew that trump's current legal team is in talks with the doj, but last night we got the enormous news of the fbi search of mar-a-lago which of course puts the investigation into a whole new light, we will discuss the ramifications of that search and what congress can possibly do to disqualify trump from ever running for office ever again. next. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on

," and it remains to be seen if and when the doj will respond to questions. there are those in washington that are speculating that as pressure builds, leadership at doj may be forced to do that and right soon. >> carley: thank you for that great reporting, we appreciate it. tom fitton joins us now. tom, without more information, it looks like the biden doj raided the home of president biden's future political opponent, is that what happened yesterday or is there any other possible justification for this rai >> there is pressure to prosecute and harass trump and they did what their leftist advocates or pressure groups wanted. this raid will go down in infame, the biden administration passed the rubicon in terms of attacking president trump and opponents by misusing law enforcement. this is continuation of what we saw during the obama administration, through the trump administration, even had the fbi and attack trump during the trump administration and now biden. if this is about records and our understanding of the law, we sued over bill clinton having presid

the doj put it really bluntly in their memo. they said a lot of the information in this affidavit, it could not only be used to identify these numerous witnesses, but if the witnesses were exposed, doj said this, they could face retaliation, intimidation, harassment, even threats to their physical safety. so in part because of those concerns, that's why the judge allowed a significant portion of this affidavit to be kept out of public view for the safety of the witnesses. >> and we've seen very public attacks on witnesses who appeared in other investigations. one unredacted portion of the affidavit cited a communication from a trump attorney, evan corcoran. tell us what we know about that. >> yeah, so this is a three-page letter sent from evan corcoran may 25th. no redactions. and it's where evan corcoran pushed back against doj's investigation. in fact he wrote out a list of several bullet points as to why he said trump could not be implicated in the criminal probe. so among them are the claims that trump had in his words absol

the doj just slices through that. legally and factually. legally it says, look, they are not his, he can't even bring a lawsuit. he has no interest in these. they don't belong to him at all. if and when he is charged, he can make any claim he wants to under the law. but for now he is a guy who has documents. he's a citizen who has documents that he has no business having. period. >> okay, with that will take a short break. elliott williams, juliet kayyem harry litman, thanks so much. you're watching cnn. the team remained calm. because with miro, they could problem solve together, and find the answer thatat was right under their nose. or... his nose. if you're washing with the bargain brand, even when your clothes look clean, there's extra dirt you can't see. watch this. that was in these clothes...gh. but the clothes washed in ti- so much cleaner. if it's got to be clean it's got to be tide hygienic clean. new astepro allergy. now available without a prescription. astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free spray. while other allerg

credibility of the fbi and the doj was always hanging by a thread. merrick garland, christopher wray, they remain silent in the silence tonight is deafening. here now is one senator who is speaking out against all of this, former senator marco rubio. do you actually said this and i found it interesting, doj, the fbi are playing with fire. >> look, i am here in a very unique position in south florida surrounded by people who come from countries where this is familiar to them. this is shocking to americans but in latin america and many of these countries around the world, here's what happens. a group takes power, one of the first things that group does is begin to persecute and go after their political opponents, and then when the supporters of the political opponents begin to complain about it they begin to target them and criminalize opposition bid that is what is happening here now. they took power, they are demanding, you see it on twitter and their public statements, they are demanding and they want donald trump arrested and charged right now. the

and the doj?them with nuÑes and patel. >> well, if -- understand, the attorney general did not push forth any particular urgent justification for the search. he said that they like to use less intrusive methods when necessary, when possible, i'm sorry, and that they engage in focused, many focused searches -- in positioned searches. the warrant itselfs is completely unfocused, and he didn't explain what it was that made it impossible to do this in a less intrusive way. so i guess i'd kind of like to see that. i don't think we're ever going to see the affidavit in support of the warrant, although it would certainly be interesting to find out what it is that they were, that they claim to have been looking for. but the warrant itself is very general, authorizes, again, the seizure of just about every piece of paper there. maria: i mean, and what's your sense of that? is that right, to have such a general warrant on a former president in it's obviously unprecedented. >> i don't think it's right to hav

it all gave the doj exactly what they wanted.e trump look like a sloppy criminal who was just mishandling top secret documents. and made the doj look like the good guys for raiding mar-a-lago. the president trump reacted to all of this by saying terrible the way the fbi during the raid of mar-a-lago threw documents haphazardly all over the floor, prance pretending it was me that did it and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see. thought they wanted to keep them secret. do you really think that's how the fbi found those documents? i bet don lemon thinks that's all had all happened. >> everyone deserves a defense and all of that. i get that, innocent until proven guilty. >> of course. >> but, the fact is, we are arguing over whether he is guilty or not. of course he is. he took the documents. now we are talking about just how bad the documents are. how top top secret they are. not that he did something wrong. >> judge jeanine: if you are not convinced this is just another witch-hunt, well, new reports say the do

if i was the doj, abidin doj, ly i'd probably be redacting everything other than the word and o the so we're going to have to see what they kick back the one good thing that this judge did say is that heil will take a look at if it's too heavily redacted, he will do so himselfi . sosng he's encouraging them to y and give us some sort of clarity. i thinkomio , though, there's a lott of people here that are just waiting, including the trumpe team, to see what the basis was when you have a coordinating president, i mean, any person, but let alone a president, it just doesn't make sense. you know, s professor, it'sen the same office>> the same peopd involved in an operation s crossfire hurricane. i would t think thathe director wray might have cleaned up that officer , but apparently he has not. i think. whatever justification he gave this magistrate who had a clear bias against donald trump, i've got i've got to t believe they want it redactedo for other reasons. that's what my gut tells me. what does your gut tell you? well, first of all, i predictedi exactly what p the judge would o thi

the doj has been very clear. it wants as little as possible revealed to protect witnesses and the investigation. cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now. katelyn, what more do we know about what happens next now that the judge has this in hand? >> reporter: it could be some time before we see anything here from this process, this process where the justice department is proposing redactions from this affidavit that would detail the investigation up to the point where they decided they needed to go and search and seize documents out of mar-a-lago. this filing, it did come in under seal. the judge will take a look at it. there could be days or weeks of wagt ahwaiting ahead for us. as this process goes on, the judge is sitting in for the public, the public interest, the historical interest as well. the media and others are pushing for some level of transparency here because of what we already know about this unprecedented search of mar-a-lago. at the same time the justice department we know that they are arguing for a gre

that's a decision by the doj. as far as i can tell, we're not going to get the backup material to what we've been reported on. in this document, it does over the seven pages, the three pages have the list of the documents that they left. but the related possible violations of the statutes are in here. they include the espionage act, a law prohibiting the deinstruction and concealing of document to obstruct an investigation and the unlawful removal of government materials. these all in the search warrant. what we need is the justification for the search warrant, which is listed in the affidavit, which has not been unsealed. this is just the official judge move on the unsealing of the warrant, which was -- we got through sources from the trump lawyers and others. >> martha: just going through this now. it is what we had in terms of what they got out, description of items. roger stone. everything that we've listed for you. this is the official release of this docket. we see the signatures by trump attorneys when it w

doj is expected to file another motion. this one lengthy, asking judge cannon to denied donald trump's request for a special master. normally these motions are 20 pages long. doj asked the judge to allow for a 40-page response because it needed more space, to quote, adequately address the legal and factual issues that trump team raised in its request. so it would seem the doj has a real issue with the way trump's lawyers described the search. we will find out a lot more in the motion itself, which could perhaps come out this hour. we just don't know. so don't go anywhere. short of that new detail, we know the doj believes a special master is not necessary because it says the department has already done the work of one. it says a filter team has already gone through the documents and pulled the ones that could potentially contain privileged information. and it says doj has already given back the private documents that are not a part of the investigation like the expired passports swept up in the shirt. legal analysts argue t

it wasn't just some higher up in the doj.re is nothing in the search warrant that is subject to attack. it states exactly what areas need to be searched for what type of evidence. it even has an attachment about the crime of espionage. and you have to really think about this. and i know we say, this ari. every time that donald trump is in legal trouble, we say oh my god, it just can't get worse than this. but espionage. i have to tell you, people think espionage means donald trump is a spy. it doesn't mean he is a spy. it means that he retained classified documents. that is a violation of the espionage act. and so from the defense perspective, and not because i'm a defender of trump, because you're my twitter buddy. you know. but because we're going to hear this, the prosecutors, if he is going to be indicted, have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he retained these documents willfully. so that begs the question, based on what we know so far, it enough that for several months there were requests, nice lower requests, pl

doj has laid the table.s not a very attractive meal for trump to sit down to. >> that's one way to put it. thanks for that. with the "new york times" having pointed out this key revelation about the fbi search, it was taken from the filing, here's the quote, the search yielded three classified documents in desks inside mr. trump's office with more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers. that was twice the number the classified documents the president's lawyers returned voluntarily while swearing an oath that they returned all the material demanded by the government. how significant is this? >> alex, the best way i can convey this to you, when i saw the photo of the volume of classified information with all of those, you know, cover folders, it gave me heart palpitations. as referenced, when i was in the fbi working counterintelligence investigations which were top secret, if we stepped away from our desk for a 30-minute lunch break, we would lock those up. that was in a secure fbi office. of course, if

it's a no-lose situation for doj, except in terms of the time clock. >> on that note, doj has made clear it doesn't think a special master is necessary, john. but what do you think? i mean, do you think it could be a good thing at least to instill confidence in this process at the very least? >> i don't think it would hurt anything. the problem is the timing. trump has waited to the last minute, three weeks after the search was undertaken and going to a different judge and conspicuously forum shopping for a judge he happened to appoint. and initially she said, hey, i don't even know what you're asking for. it was kind of what they call a bench slap. and they got that squared away. and they've come back and they've asked for a -- not attorney/client privilege. they want to exert executive privilege. that's just absurd. that's just a pure stall tactic. there is no executive privilege against the executive. this isn't the congress reaching out for these documents. so, there's some scurry stuff going on that just looks like a stall tactic, pam. >> yeah, doj has made clear, we are the executi

how long has the doj been playing politics? remember this?at one point, the attorney general had directed me not to call it an investigation, but instead the call it a matter which confused me and concerned me. maria: coming up, former intel committee chairman and truth social ceo devin nuÑes with federal prosecutor kash patel on who's ordering the hit, and what's really going on at doj and fbi. then former attorney general and federal judge himself michael mukasey with reaction to merrick garland's press conference and the two tiers of justice this america today. plus, more misinformation from the corner office. >> we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of july. 0%. here's what that means: while the price of some things went up last month, the price of others went down by the same amount. the result, zero inflation last month. people are are still hurting, but zero inflation last month. maria: not exactly, joe. daze thed and confused over new inflation data this week that remains at 40-year highs and is up 8.5% as ho

it will give us the narrative of how doj established probable cause. i understand why doj is fighting the release of this. it will be dreadful for their investigation. it could deter current and potential future cooperating witnesses. and frankly, it's not fair to the person who's being investigated. everyone, including donald trump, has a right to be presumed innocent. and doj should not be in the business of getting out there and making statements before anyone's been charged saying, hey, everyone, here's all our evidence that makes us think he probably committed a crime. >> what about the lawmakers on the intel committees. can they see this stuff? >> that's a tough decision for merrick garland. the prosecutorial purist in me says, absolutely not. i don't want to trust anybody. i don't want to marng this up to capitol hill. i think if i was in merrick garland's shoes, i would brief the smallest number of people with as little detail as possible. >> miles, you have been in the room when president trump was handling classified info. does any of this co

>> will: as of tonight, no comment so far from the fbi or doj. mike said this is up to the american people, you, watching, to decide was this a legal raid. was this a raid in pursuit of justice or was this a partisan act to take out, not just a former president, but a potential candidate for president of the united states, and obviously, according to the latest polls, the leader of the opposition party. in order to know the answer to that question, the doj and the fbi will need to provide, and soon, the evidentiary and legal basis for this. this is a very fair statement, unprecedented action by the department of justice. let's talk about exactly what you the viewer, what you the american, should be taking away from this with steven miller, a former trump advisory. steven, what a day in american history. your reaction. >> this is an abomination. you have the sitting president of the united states, joe biden, through his justice department, through his fbi, conducting a raid on the person who is presumed to be his opponent in the next election, and

this is why doj needed 40 pages. they needed twice what the court said they could have because they had to apparently lay all of this out. >> yeah, good morning, jim and poppy. part of the objective of this filing is for doj to, as they say, correct the narrative, correct this false impression that the trump team has given that they have been fully cooperative with this investigation. this level of detail was not required at all in this filing, but the justice department taking it as an opportunity to tell the judge who was not involved in the search warrant just the type of work that they had done to this point. they said they recovered 320 classified documents from mar-a-lago. they said that when they executed the search warrant there, three weeks ago, they recovered twice as many records that they had been given from the trump team when they had subpoenaed them back in may. so, clearly indicating here that they were not getting the type of information and the full record of information that they believed existed t